


Be Mine, Stay Mine

by LuminousLawliet



Category: Death Note
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-05-05
Updated: 2014-05-05
Packaged: 2018-01-22 03:00:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 720
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1573616
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LuminousLawliet/pseuds/LuminousLawliet
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Matt looks after Mello on Valentine's Day as he recovers from the explosion that disfigured his face.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Be Mine, Stay Mine

February 14.

Mello sat at the edge of the bed, back turned toward the door, watching the snow fall outside. He heard Matt enter the room behind him and sighed, rolling his eyes at the lanky figure reflected in the darkened windowpane.

“Heya, Mells. How ya feeling today, buddy?” Matt greeted him.

“I was fine until you disturbed me, loser,” Mello coughed. 

“Is that any way to treat your caretaker?” Matt laughed, unrolling the bandages he carried with him. “Face it, Mells, I’m all you’ve got in the world. Now let me take a look at you.” He walked over to the other side of the bed to face Mello, who turned his tired eyes to the ground. “You’re sitting up on your own today. That’s a start.”

“Did you really think I was going to stay down forever? I guess it’s true that no one believes in me.”

“Now you know that isn’t true,” replied Matt, carefully unraveling the spent bandages on Mello’s face. “What’s got you so riled up today?”

“I feel useless,” Mello grunted, wincing with every word as Matt applied medicine to the stinging wounds on his face. “I was so close. I was so close to getting my hands on the notebook, to stopping Kira and solving the case. But I was careless. L would have been ashamed of me.”

“What does any of this have to do with L?” Matt asked, measuring and trimming a fresh bandage for Mello’s face.

“All I ever wanted was to be the best. I wanted L’s approval. I wanted to show him that I was capable of succeeding him; that I was superior to Near. This just proves that I’m an incompetent mess.”

“L never got around to choosing his successor, you know,” Matt reminded him, smoothing out the wrinkles on the fresh bandage and cupping Mello’s face in his palm.

“That’s the point,” Mello snapped, turning away from Matt and rejecting his gentle touch. “Now I’ll never know if I was good enough, and every stupid screw-up will only serve to prove to me that I wasn’t.”

“Your outlook is crappy, dude,” Matt scoffed. “Think of it this way. Now you have the chance to create your own ending instead of worrying about living up to whatever L did or didn’t have planned for you. Live your own life, Mells. That’s all you can do. Either do that or quit. Your choice.”

“You’re such an idiot, Matt,” Mello groaned, shaking his head.

“Maybe so,” Matt quietly agreed. “That’s probably why L never gave me a second look when he was trying to choose a successor. But you know what? I’m okay with that. I’m alive and well and I’m making my own way in the world. Meanwhile, you and Near are both losing your minds trying to compete with one another. That kind of misery you two are forcing on yourselves seems like the real stupidity here, if you ask me.” 

“Matt, just get out,” Mello said softly, slowly. 

“I guess this means you don’t want to play any video games today, huh?”

“No.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes.”

“I can just leave my GameBoy here for you to borrow and play on your own if you’d prefer.”

“No.”

“You can’t just sit here all day like this doing nothing. It’s so…”

“Matt. Go. Away.”

Matt sighed. “You’re impossible, Mells. Absolutely impossible.” He reached out and ruffled Mello’s hair for the sole purpose of irritating him further. Mello flinched and Matt smirked, satisfied. “I do have something for you though. Mind if I leave it here?” Mello, back still turned, heard him place something on the bedside table and he huffed angrily.

“For the last time, I don’t want your GameBoy. Just leave me in peace.”

Matt said nothing, just turned away and closed the door behind him. Mello waited for a moment to make sure Matt was gone before he looked to see what he had left. On the table sat a bar of chocolate, Mello’s favorite brand, with a little note next to it scrawled out in Matt’s atrocious handwriting.

Happy Valentine’s Day, you piece of garbage.  
-Matt

“Matt, you freakin’ sack of crap,” Mello chuckled to himself. He flopped down onto his pillow with the chocolate bar, tearing open the wrapper and taking a bite.


End file.
